Dictators and Republics, Part III

Rodney DodsworthMarch 21, 2016March 21, 2016Comments Off on Dictators and Republics, Part III

By 1945, after a dozen years of the New Deal and WWII, the US more or less accepted arbitrary government intrusion into domestic affairs. Leftist outrages from the 1960s to today are continuation of precedent established subsequent to law beginning in the 1930s.

What if the constitution had provided for outright appointment of a dictator to deal with emergencies? What if men were statutorily appointed, Roman style, by the President to six month terms of incredible authority to deal with a specific crisis? No further congressional laws, no give and take compromises among political lawmakers, no permanent changes to the laws in order to deal with a situation that required temporary extra-republican remedies would be left over after the emergency.

American wars of survival have left their mark, and not just on her citizens, but on her laws, customs, subsequent executive orders and precedents. Laws associated with authority to deal with external threats remain after the war, which are later turned inward to oppress the people they were designed to protect.

Pardon me if I muse, but what if the American Republic had empowered a dictator now and then, rather than soil the hands of Presidents with legacies that have corrupted our republic and given us the tyrant Obama?